5/19/2021 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly the seafarers do not have mandatory SSS coverage. The Court upheld the validity of the 1988 MOA between SSS and DOLE, which requires a stipulation in the SEC providing for SSS coverage of the Filipino seafarer. Thus, the SEC is the legal contract that binds both principal foreign ship owner and manning agency regarding their solidary liability over the SSS coverage of the seafarers, to wit: Thus, the Standard Contract of Employment to be entered into between foreign shipowners and Filipino seafarers is the instrument by which the former express their assent to the inclusion of the latter in the coverage of the Social Security Act. In other words, the extension of the coverage of the Social Security System to Filipino seafarers arises by virtue of the assent given in the contract of employment signed by employer and seafarer; that same contract binds petitioner Sta. Rita or B. Sta. Rita Company, who is solidarily liable with the foreign shipowners/employers.[42] (emphasis and underscoring supplied) While petitioners insist that the Sta. Rita ruling regarding the solidary liability of principal foreign ship owners and manning agencies regarding SSS coverage is a mere obiter dictum, such argument is inconsequential. As discussed above, there are several laws and regulations that already mandate the joint and several liability of principal foreign ship owners and manning agencies regarding claims arising from the employment of seafarers, including SSS coverage, particularly, R.A. No. 8049, as amended, and the 2016 POEA Rules. Consequently, the different treatment of seafarers and manning agencies is justified and germane to the purpose of the law. A declared policy of R.A. No. 11199 is to extend social security protection to Filipino workers, local or overseas, and their beneficiaries. The law applied the existing law and regulations regarding the joint and solidary liability of manning agencies with principal foreign ship owners to attain the statutory purpose of the mandatory coverage of seafarers under the SSS. As a result, the joint and solidary liability of the manning agency with principal foreign ship owners was reasonably extended to the obligations regarding SSS contributions. This satisfies the second requisite that the classification be germane to the purpose of the law. In the same manner, the assailed provision does not only apply to existing conditions. Seafarers are completely covered by the SSS, and all the manning agencies, without any prior conditions, shall have a solidary liability with the principal foreign ship owners for the SSS contributions. Likewise, the mandatory coverage of SSS applies to all kinds of seafarers, regardless of position or designation on their respective vessels. Hence, the third and fourth requisites – that the classification must not be limited to existing conditions only and that it must apply equally to all members of the same class – are complied with. As there is a valid and legal classification between sea-based OFWs and land-based OFWs, there is no violation of the equal protection clause. The law is not superfluous; manning agencies are not https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/66432 14/28